17 
MOUNT PERRY COPPER MINE. 
Altliougli this is not tlie only copper-mine in tlie district, it is the only one 
’^’hich has been worked continuously and on a large scale. 
Mr. Israel Bennett, Inspector of Mines, and formerly manager at Mount Perry, 
Was good enough to give me the following notes in 18S5 : — 
“Seven shafts have heen put down on the lode to various depths; the main or 
engine shaft is now between 800 and 900 feet deep. The course of the lode is 
37° E., and whore it is at present being worked (to the south-west of the main 
shaft) it hades to the south-east about S°” [from the vertical]. “ Near the surface 
the ore consisted of green carbonate and azurite, and at 30 feet deep of rich red 
(cuprite) and grey oxides of copper, and below this depth of yellow ore and copper 
Pyrites. The pyrites is contained in a veinstone of quartz and calcite, each of which 
predominates in turns. To the north of the main shaft much iron pyrites has been met 
With mixed with the copper ore. At the present depth [1885] the lode is about 4 feet 
in width. The width of ore is about 10 inches on an average.” . . . “ There are 
numerous cross-courses, which, although they do not displace the lode, yet often afEeet 
the ore in the lode, either by breaking it up into strings, or by displacing it from one 
®ide of the lode to the other. At these points of intersection the lode is usually 
enriched. A dyke of orthoclase porphyry runs parallel with the lode, and is displaced, 
eC) by the cross-courses. Two dykes of dolerite also cross the lode in a north-westerly 
direction.” 
'I’he country-rock is a sycuitic granite which Mr. Bands regards as metamorphie. 
e granite in places has carbonate of copper disseminated through its mass. At the 
utueensland Claim, the granite is worked as a low-percentage ore (10 per cent, of 
copper) to assist in the smelting of the pyrites at the Mount Perry Mine. 
The output of the mine prior to 1885, according to Mr. Bennett, was — 
95 tons ore at £20 ... ... ... £1,900 Os. 
19? „ £10 197 10s. 
1,200 tons copper at £70 ... ... ... 84,000 Os. 
Total £86,097 10s. 
In 1888 the Annual Report of the Department of Mines shows 1,09G tons of 
copper ore, valued at £9,128, and in 1889, 978 tons of copper ore, valued at £10,000, 
^rom the Tonningering District. This was probably for the most part the product of 
e Mount Perry Mine. In 1890 the amount of copper raised in the Tenningering 
tons, valued at £1,000, and the Mineral Lands Commissioner reports 
6 Mount Perry Mine to have been closed. 
Pe Canterbury and Normanby Lodes adjoin and run parallel with the Mount 
and''^ nine miles to the west is the Potosi Lode. It contains galena, with copper 
Mu Pyi'ii'C® and a little zinc-blende, in a gangue of quartz and barytes. The 
ungai Lodes are three miles further west, in a country-rock of actinolite schist. Erom 
cse lodes carbonates of co^jper are raised for smelting with the Mount Perry ores. 
^ AVolca Lodes are six miles north of Mount Perry. Some of those contain 
p ) one (the Allendale) as much as 15 dwt. to the ton, as well as copper ore. There 
another group of lodes in the paddock of 'Wombah Station. 
The Boolboonda Mines lie to the east of the granite country, in a belt of 
amorphic rocks, consisting of gneisses, schists, quartzites, &c. The Boolboonda, 
‘ u )ria, and New Moonta Lodes contain gold as well as copper — apparently in several 
8 m propor tions which would be payable under favourable conditions.* 
details see Mr. Rands’ Report on the Gold Fields of Raglan, &o., and the Mineral 
l“8its in the Burnett District. Brisbane : by Authority : 1885. 
